Not Applicable
Not Applicable
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to equipment for producing cheese, such as mozzarella; and more particularly to equipment for cooling and salting newly formed blocks of cheese.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mozzarella cheese is commonly produced in five to twenty pound blocks or cylinders which are molded at a typical temperature of 135 degrees Fahrenheit. At this temperature the cheese block is very soft and can be deformed if not handled with care. Thus, before the cheese can be packaged, the blocks have to be cooled to approximately fifty degrees Fahrenheit. In addition, salt has to be added to the cheese if it was not added prior to the molding step. The finished product has from one to two percent salt by weight.
There are two processes presently being employed to cool the cheese and add salt after molding. In the first method, cheese emerging from the molding equipment drops into a serpentine open channel, or flume, through which brine flows. Cheese floats in a saturated brine, but sinks in fresh water. The brine flowing through the flume is cooled by refrigeration system to between 30 and 35 degrees Fahrenheit. The flume is sufficiently long so that cheese will be cooled to the desired temperature prior to packaging.
A drawback of the open flume system is that the cheese is not fully submerged and the upper surface, which is exposed to air, is not adequately cooled or salted. The exposed portion also dries out and becomes discolored if the block is not turned over periodically alone the flume. In addition hydraulic pressure tends to produce cupping of the top and bottom surfaces of the cheese blocks and bulging of the sides. Thus, workers must be positioned along the flume with tools to rotate the cheese blocks periodically to ensure uniform cooling and salting and to prevent deformation. This becomes very labor intensive.
A second cheese cooling system involves submerging the cheese in a large tank or pool of chilled brine. Typically the cheese blocks emerging from the molding machine are placed into a receptacle, such as a basket or rack, which is then mechanically lowered into the brine pool by an operator. This method ensures that all surfaces of the cheese are exposed to the brine and thus are cooled and salted uniformly. However, the submerging system still requires human operators to assist in filling and emptying the receptacles of cheese and manual monitoring of the time that each receptacle has been in the brine to know when cooling is complete. In addition, the last cheese block to be placed into the receptacle usually is the first one taken out, thereby resulting is some blocks being in the brine longer than others, which produces blocks with different salt content and temperature.
Regardless of which conventional cooling method is used, a high level of manual labor and supervision is required. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a more automated and efficient process for uniformly cooling and salting cheese products.
A cheese processing system employs a liquid flume to convey blocks of cheese between two components of the system, for example between the molding equipment and a brine tank which cools the cheese. A novel staging section is provided in the flume to control the delivery of the cheese blocks to the component at the end of the flume. The staging section enables the cheese blocks which enter the flume one at a time to be delivered in predefined groups at the flume outlet.
The staging section comprises a first stop mechanism having one position in which blocks of cheese are detained in the flume and another position in which the blocks of cheese are able to travel in the flume from the staging section. A sensor detects how much cheese has been detained by the first stop mechanism. Although the sensor may provide a count of the number of cheese blocks, the preferred sensor detects accumulation of a predefined length of cheese in the staging section. This preferred embodiment readily accommodates cheese blocks of various individual lengths, yet detects when a uniform amount of cheese has accumulated. That amount can correspond to the capacity of a receptacle in the cooling tank.
A controller is connected to the first stop mechanism and the sensor. The controller responds to a predefined amount of cheese being detained by the first stop mechanism by placing the first stop mechanism into the second state to allow the accumulated blocks of cheese pass to exit the staging section.
The preferred staging system further comprises a moveable second stop mechanism located in the flume upstream of an inlet to the staging section to restraint additional blocks of cheese from entering the staging area while a previously accumulated group of cheese blocks exits.
Another aspect of the present invention is a structure that controls the flow of liquid through the staging area to move the cheese blocks. An internal wall divides the flume in the staging section into first and second channels through which liquid in the flume normally flows, When it is desired to move an accumulated group of cheese blocks out of the staging section, a first flow gate is activated to direct the liquid flow from the second channel into the first channel near the staging section inlet. Thus substantially the full liquid flow in the flume now passes through the first channel which increases the force acting on the cheese blocks and quickly overcomes their inertia. A second flow gate is activated to direct the liquid flow from the second channel into the first channel farther upstream in the flume when it is desired to drive the cheese blocks detained by the second stop mechanism into the staging area.